SHENANDOAH - Lindsay Nemeth didn't have the prettiest line when teammate Emily Sofranko drove through the lane, then kicked a pass to the perimeter.

Nemeth didn't have a bucket in seven previous attempts from the field.

What Nemeth did have was confidence when she elevated off the floor with 37 seconds left to release a high-arcing jumper.

That 3-pointer found the bottom of the net and Nemeth leapt off the floor a second time to pump her fist with excitement.

Nemeth's triple gave Marian the lead for good and Sam Faust knocked down four straight free throws to give the Fillies a 37-30 victory over Shenandoah Valley in a Schuylkill League Division III girls' basketball game Tuesday night.

"Em got a good drive to the middle and she kicked it out for the 3. I was feeling it."

The victory snapped a three-game losing streak for Marian (12-6, 7-4 D-III) and put the Fillies back in the driver's seat for the league playoffs with two division contests remaining.

Nemeth's triple might have been the biggest shot of the night for the Fillies because it came on the heels of a huge bucket by the Blue Devils' Ahna Huss.

Huss drove to the right side of the basket and converted on an off-balance layup to finish a 12-4 run by Shenandoah Valley that erased an eight-point deficit and knotted the game at 30 with 45 seconds left.

Shenandoah Valley (10-8, 6-5) had been playing man-to-man defense to get back into the game. The Blue Devils wanted to get back into the diamond-and-one that had been effective against the Fillies' offense.

"We wish we would have gotten a timeout," Shenandoah Valley coach Chris Conroy said. "We're kicking ourselves for that. Just flow of the game, (we) really needed to get a timeout because we had switched.

"We were diamond-and-one on (Gabby) Green, then we were man, trying to get the ball back. When we tied it, we were trying to go back to diamond and we just got out of position. We really needed a timeout. That's what I told the kids. This one's on us; this one's on me. We should've been in a better position to defend at the end of the game there."

Following Huss' bucket, Marian took the ball right down the floor, with Sofranko heading into the lane and kicking out to Nemeth.

"It took a lot of nerve," Marian coach Paul Brutto said. "Before it, it was not such a good shot, but afterwards ... yeah.

"She's such a tough kid. She plays with a lot of nerve. She battles," said Brutto of Nemeth. "She got a big rebound off a missed foul shot before that. To have the guts to step up and hit that in that kind of game, give her a ton of credit. We needed it because we were struggling when they went a little bit of junk on Gab."

Marian struggled offensively early in the contest as the Blue Devils built a 14-7 lead midway through the second quarter.

Nicole Sacco scored six of her team-high eight points in the first two quarters. She also finished with six rebounds and four blocks.

Defensively, the Fillies made some adjustments that helped lead to an 18-4 run from the 3:45 mark of the second quarter through the beginning of the fourth to take a 26-18 lead. Green, who finished with 13 points, scored eight in the third quarter.

"They were clearing us out a little bit too easily," Brutto said. "So we just had to have our kid on the inbounder stay up a little bit and double because (Kristina) Nieddu was their primary ball-handler. We wanted to try to get her into double teams and get the ball out of her hands. We were just retreating too easily when they were clearing out, and that caused some problems."

"To suck it up ... our kids showed a lot of heart, a lot of fight, too," Conroy said. "There have been times where that was it. We folded the tent.

"I couldn't be more proud of their effort and what they've given us all season. It's just a shame it had to end that way in terms of the division."

Nemeth's triple gave the Fillies all the momentum as the Devils turned the ball over, leading to Faust's free throws that sealed the victory.

"Sam was big taking (the lead) from 3 to whatever," Brutto said. "She's our best foul shooter. She went to the line and came through for us."

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